Didn't have this conversation on Reddit so here I go:
Seeing this accusation made me think and worried me so I looked into it. Originally I used the typo because it was also a meme that I didn't consider racist since many people on the world have this kind of problems linguistically so I really thought it was an innocent joke, apparently not. I'll be more careful about this in the future. Thanks for your insult I guess. (Btw can we change the title here? We can, great.)
Also this is what ChatGPT said about this, putting this here as a reference in case someone who thinks like me checks this post:
If someone makes such a statement with the intention of demeaning or mocking Chinese people based on their language abilities, it can be considered racist, as it perpetuates negative stereotypes and reinforces harmful biases. Stereotyping or generalizing an entire group of people based on their language or accent is unfair and can lead to discrimination.
However, it's important to note that discussing linguistic differences or challenges faced by certain language speakers is not inherently racist. Linguistic variations exist across different languages and cultures, and it is natural for individuals to have different pronunciation patterns based on their native languages.
The key lies in how such observations are made and communicated. It is crucial to approach the topic with respect, cultural sensitivity, and an understanding that language differences do not imply any superiority or inferiority.
According to that article, COVID may have resulted in a million deaths in China above the long-term trend line in the last 3 years. This is known as the excess mortality rate, which we can directly compare to other countries even if China lied about COVID mortality (and hey, maybe they did - it would be in their own interests so it’s plausible)
According to this article, since the pandemic began the US’s excess deaths have also sparked sharply even as the COVID mortality rate falls in official government data (sound familiar?) FTA: Since the pandemic began, excess deaths are up by more than 1.25 million in the U.S., about 15% higher than in the pre-pandemic years. That’s worse even when you don’t take populations into account!
Now we can do excess deaths per capita to compare these two policies:
China’s population is notoriously huge, with currently 1.412 billion people living in China. 1 million excess deaths among 1.412 billion people gives us an excess death rate of ~0.07%
America is a much smaller country, with 331.9 million people. 1.25 million excess deaths among 331.9 million gives us an excess death rate of ~0.38%
That means America’s policies were 5x worse on a per capita basis. The zero COVID policy wasn't perfect, but it was a hell of a lot better than the Let 'er Rip! policy of the rest of the West.
America is the worst of its cohorts, but the rest of the West failed too!
France had 151,000 excess deaths. At that rate China would have lost over 3 million
Germany had 254,000 excess deaths . At that rate China would have lost over 4 million
Britain had 237,000 excess deaths. At that rate China would have lost just under 5 million.
In fairness, China only barely outcompeted South Korea at 42,000 excess deaths - at that rate China would have lost 1.14 million instead of a measly 1 million. That’s still 140,000 lives that were saved because of zero COVID that would have died with the extremely effective South Korean policies.
In conclusion, China is a positive force in the world and I know which side I’m on in the next Cold War.
Is this a joke???? You are aware that the death toll in China vs other states is not the sole or even biggest reason their government is criticized right? And that for the first, most critical year of the pandemic, America had a president that liberals hated and was HEAVILY criticized. Especially how he handled COVID at literally every step of the way and anyone else who agreed with it. Because you know, it lead to so many deaths.
Ugh can't we go back to the old school edgelords who think they are vampires and wanna drink blood instead of making excuses for fascist governments and movements?
I actually wrote that comment out a while back when arguing with someone about zero COVID and wanted to make sure it carried over to this lemmy profile lol
The gap between your conclusion and the rest of your comment is larger than the mariana trench, just because Chana got this right doesn't say anything about almost anything else, and I know the US is awful too but COVID alone is not enpugh to draw a conclusion this big.
Not really, some groups get banned for being anti-Chinese (and usually fronts for US imperialism lol), but I'll grant that the current state of queer rights and acceptance is behind the West. It's mostly kneejerk anti-Western culture war bullshit (that is being inflamed by the US using us as political pawns), but there have been recent moves towards acceptance that I'm hoping lead to more progress on the issue. There are reasons to be optimistic about China's future.
Are there reasons to be optimistic about America at this point?
Why make any statements about who has a worse track record when not a single thing China says about their stats is backed up by any facts? Their excess deaths could be 50 million, nobody has a clue. All we know is that they get caught on lies time after time.
The World Bank and the United Nations seem to trust China's raw/crude death rate. That's why, by looking at that death rate, the article I linked was able to find 1 million excess deaths that China isn't reporting as COVID mortality. It's pretty convincing?